Explainer · GDP
GDP is a scoreboard. It is not a living standard.
Gross domestic product counts activity on a territory. It does not say who received the activity, or whether anyone could afford a house.
The three ways to count the same pile
Production: the value added by farms, mines, factories, hospitals, apps. Income: wages, profits and taxes on production. Expenditure: consumption plus investment plus government plus net exports. In the textbooks they reconcile. In the releases they wobble and get revised.
Nominal GDP is this year's prices. Real GDP holds prices still so you can see volume. Most "the economy grew" headlines mean real GDP. Most "we can afford this" arguments quietly switch to nominal.
The division sign they leave off the graphic
A country can grow because it produced more per person, or because it added people. Both raise the headline. Only the first raises average material living standards. GDP per capita is the version that belongs next to wages and housing.
Even per capita is not welfare. It ignores home production, leisure, distribution and the destruction you will have to rebuild. A flood and the rebuild can both look like activity.
How to read an Australian print
Ask three questions. Is it real or nominal? Is it total or per person? Which quarter, and has it been revised? The national accounts are a camera with a delay and a habit of changing last year's photo.